Ebay (sort of vent) How do I know this is real?

**Shann** · 06-02-2005, 08:47 AM

I just received an e-mail today regarding my ebay account. This is what is said:
eBay Fraud Mediation Request

Dear eBay Member,
Your bank has contacted us regarding some attempts of charges from your credit card via the eBay system. We have reasons to believe that you changed your registration information or that someone else has unauthorized access to your eBay account Due to recent activity, including possible unauthorized listings placed on your account, we will require a second confirmation of your identity with us in order to allow us to investigate this matter further. Your account is not suspended, but if in 48 hours after you receive this message your account is not confirmed we reserve the right to suspend your eBay registration. If you received this notice and you are not the authorized account holder, please be aware that it is in violation of eBay policy to represent oneself as another eBay user. Such action may also be in violation of local, national, and/or international law. eBay is committed to assist law enforcement with any inquires related to attempts to misappropriate personal information with the intent to commit fraud or theft. Information will be provided at the request of law enforcement agencies to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Then it gave me a link to click to confirm my identity that began like this:
http://signin.ebay.com/aw-cgi.

I contacted my bank but they said that they would never contact someone if there was a problem w/ my card being charged like this except me. I checked online and did not see anything out of the ordinary BUT I am unable to sign into my ebay account.

When I go to contact them I don't actually get an e-mail to do it, just a page that goes through how do I know if the e-mail is from ebay.

I just want to be really careful b/c I don't give out my ac**** info and don't want anything to be exposed if this isn't real.

TIA.

**Advertisement** · 06-02-2005 08:47 AM

**schsa** · 06-02-2005, 08:53 AM

Forward the letter to e-Bay. They have an address to send these letters to and let them tell you whether or not it is legit. I would be willing to bet it isn't. Don't give out any personal information. And don't click that link.

**LuvBigRip** · 06-02-2005, 08:57 AM

http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/

[email protected] is the email address, but this will walk you through it.

**BigLyd1** · 06-02-2005, 09:54 AM

I've gotten two of those in the past month and they weren't real. Like the others have said, just go through Ebay. Click on the link provided here and it'll walk you through it. They usually reply right away. Also if you scroll over the link provided in the email, it will usually have an unusual address that you can tell is not associated with Ebay.

**catdance** · 06-02-2005, 01:42 PM

samething here and I got a few from PAYPAL the sister site, it is fraud not true and report it to the ebay..NOT eBAY officals or use the "spoof" e-mail addy it is not real, don't give any information to that link, rather what I stated.

**quietvixsin** · 06-02-2005, 11:20 PM

Well I am sorry to tell you, but you have been taken. If you actually clicked on that link enclosed in the email and even attempted to type in your user ID and password, they have programs that capture what you typed in. They then can log into your ebay account and do as they wish with it. Because alot of people don't know any better, they use the same name and password for PayPal, so chances are they are trying to access that account but using Ebay as a decoy. If you DID click on that link, the first thing to do would be to try and log into Ebay for real by opening a browser window yourself and typing in www.ebay.com, then login. If it won't let you, they have locked you out of your account. You should then contact Ebay immediately to get this resolved. However, if you can log into your Ebay account, do so immediately and then change your password and whatever else you need to so they can't access your info. If you have any credit cards listed with them, or bank accounts, remove them or change to a different one.

NEVER click on those links out of the emails unless you are sure what you are doing. One way to decide if it is real or not is to point your mouse over the link without clicking it. While you are doing that look at the bottom of your email window (this is if you are using Outlook Express or something similar) for email. It should show you what address the link is really going to, because what shows in the body of the email is usually the fake address. If you use hotmail or some other web based mail, instead of being at the bottom it might show a text line with the real address when you point your mouse at it. But I repeat, only point at it... DON'T click it. And of course, as others suggested, get the address for the fraud dept. off ebay and forward that email to them.

Well I hope this helps... Feel free to give your friends all this info so in case they get a similar email they will know what to do. Oh, this also applies if you get something like this with a bank logo on it. I get them monthly supposedly from banks I have never even had an account with... They are doing what is called "phishing". That means they hope to get ppl to click the link and type in their info so they can then get into the accounts later.

**Shann** · 06-02-2005, 11:27 PM

Thanks for all the info everyone. NO I did NOT click on the link. I just don't understand why I wasn't able to log into my account though. I am going to keep a close eye on it now to make sure nothing is going on. The funny thing is that I haven't sold one thing and I've only purchased three things, so I don't understand what they would want w/ my account.

Thanks for the replies, I knew it sounded fishy, and generally the e-mails that are spoofs from them go to my junk folder and this one was in my inbox.

**tracey74** · 06-03-2005, 11:48 AM

Ive gotten a few of these type things and I dont use ebay or paypal also got one from a supposed bank and I dont do any kind of banking online or anything.I pay my bills by money order and I dont have a credit card so I knew this wasnt a legitimate email

**Shann** · 06-03-2005, 12:10 PM

I sent the email to ebay and they got back to me, it was a spoof. I didn't click on it or anything, so all is well.

**skittyskatt** · 06-03-2005, 04:13 PM

my boyfriend made the mistake of clicking on one of those and trying to sign in. they took over his account and listed cars to sell. we eventually got it straightened out but it was ebay that was the one that caught it and fixed it. they did send on email but asked for nothing. just told him what happened and that it had been straightened out. we logged in on his account afterwards and changed the password and such but saw in his sell account all the cars that had been listed. so it doesnt matter if you only bought 3 things, they can list away on your account for 1 or 3 day listings before you might catch it. i had to teach that to my parents too who did the same thing but i caught it and changed thier password before it was taken from them. my boyfriend gets about 4 emails a week from the fraud paypal and ebay scammers. ignore them all.

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